I’m at the very beginning of my knot tying career, but at the moment, I probably prefer to tie bends more than anything. What’s the most practical bend to use for general purposes, what’s the strongest bend for towing a car, what’s your favorite bend.
I like the Zeppelin Bend, Simple Simon bends, Albright Special, double sheet bend, fisherman’s knot(I guess this is a bend). I really like the Albright Special because of it’s barrel shaped look, it just looks good to me. The shake hands bend is neat too. Which of these should I be using, I’m going to guess the Zeppelin Bend is the best to use and strongest.
I personally gravitate towards the Zeppelin bend mostly, but will usually re-tuck the working ends through the center essentially doubling the core within the collars. I “feel” that this helps to cushion the rope some and makes the untying just a tad easier. No scientific data to back this up, but the real world experience I have goes a long way to prove it to Me. Plus is has a nice look to it.
The type of bend you choose should be chosen with the task in mind, i.e., permanent bend, if the rope has to pass through/over something, dissimilar ropes, etc. We’ve discussed so many of these already and you could try the search function to help you glean the info from them.
If you have some questions in particular that are unanswered, fire away and we’ll try to help.
I would not worry about knot strength for ropes. Knots will only reduce rope strength so much (typically not more than 50% reduction). If you sized your rope correctly, knot strength really shouldn’t be a deciding factor.
I also tend to like the Zeppelin Bend because of its security against shaking and flogging, and also because of its delightful jam resistance. I also like that its distinctive form makes it easy to check. Usually, jamming (hard to untie after heavy strain) knots are not well suited for use with rope unless the applied strain is very low. Jamming knots would be better suited for disposable stuff.
I agree the Zeppelin bend is the best all rounder but if you want to make a permanent join eg to make a rope sling then the double fisherman’s (or grinner) knot is very secure but virtually impossible to undo after being under strain. I almost always use a single fisherman’s knot in throwaway material such as string because the ends lie alongside the standing part (usually for making a sling for hanging something rather than joining 2 separate pieces) and it looks neater.
For general rope:
Zeppelin (overall favorite)
Carrick (strong, easiest to untie, possibly better than Zeppelin)
Butterfly (fastest, easiest)
Double Sheet (leas favorite here, but sometimes it solves the problem best)
Loops on Square (when all else fails, this will bend any rope diameter difference and any material difference)
For fishing:
Uni
San Diego
Albright Special
Zeppelin (yes, I said Zeppelin)
